If unpaid debt is still on my credit report after eleven years, doesn’t it have to come off?
Catalyst asked:
I have been told by several people that after seven years, a debt is supposed to be removed from my credit report. If I have debt and accounts that were opened in 1997, 1998, and are listed as charged off or closed, how can I get these reports off my credit report?
Edward
I have been told by several people that after seven years, a debt is supposed to be removed from my credit report. If I have debt and accounts that were opened in 1997, 1998, and are listed as charged off or closed, how can I get these reports off my credit report?
Edward
Tags: Credit Report, Eleven Years, Seven Years
June 28th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
William
yeah 7 yrs is the statues unless the creditior petitions for longer time this specially true in civil judgements
July 1st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Dorothy
Dispute them with the bureau that’s reporting and they will likely come off.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Jerry
The debt could stay on for 7-10 years depending on what state you live in. Go to annualcreditreport.com where you can check all three of your credit reports for free once every year. No subscription or credit cards required, unless you want your fico score included.
Once you get there dispute the accounts online. The mail-in form takes too long. DO NOT call up your creditors to dispute! They’ll probably say no anyway. Remember you owe them,They could care less about you. Experian, Equifax, and Transunion will send you a written decision and/or an updated credit report in mail with the disputed items removed within 30 days.
However, if you were contacted by a bill collector/collection agency to make a payment on the account, lets say 3 years after the charge off and you agreed to a payment plan or said you would send a payment just to hurry up and get off the phone with them. And then you didn’t pay as agreed.The whole 7-10 year period could start all over again from that day.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Oscar
The statute applies to the date that the account went bad, not the date that the account was opened.
If you have documentation that shows the date of last activity (DLA), then you should use this to document your claim to the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs).
What happens in many cases is that the debt is sold to various collection agencies. When a collection agency receives the debt, they commonly will report the account as having been opened on the date they purchased it. Even worse, they will often show it as an active account, which keeps the account looking as though it is just now beyond terms. This lowers your FICO score, because it shows a very old delinquency as a current problem. The age of bad credit is a factor in your score. All of these actions are illegal, and in violation of the FDCPA.
Step One: Write a dispute letter to each of the CRAs (see links for addresses), send via certified mail with a return receipt. Do not use the online dispute services or the CRAs’ own forms for this. Write your own letter.
Step Two: Wait 30 days for a response from the CRAs. If at least one CRA removes the item, send a copy of that letter to the other CRAs (who did not remove the item)
Step Three: If this has not resolved the issue, you may send a demand letter to the collection agency and the original account owner threatening legal action under the FDCPA and FCRA, but only do this if you plan to follow through
Step Four: File suit, if necessary
You can do an Internet Search on how to take these steps, but I recommend that you see an attorney if the first two steps do not resolve your issue. See the links for more information.
Good luck!